California has a third of the nation's solar power jobs
David R. Baker
Published 3:01 am, Tuesday, February 11, 2014

One-third of all Americans who work in solar power live in California, according to an annual survey released Tuesday.
And their numbers are growing fast.
The solar industry employed 47,223 Californians last year, up 8 percent from 2012, according to the survey from the Solar Foundation, a research and advocacy group.
Nationwide, the solar industry employed 142,698 people. And while the rate of solar job growth nationwide was faster than in California, nearly hitting 20 percent last year, the Golden State still dominates the business.
"California is, by far, the leader," said Andrea Luecke, the foundation's executive director. "It's not by accident that the solar industry is based there."
Most of California's solar jobs, however, focus on panel installation and financing versus research and development efforts to create new technologies.
Starting more than 10 years ago, California officials made a concerted push to foster the solar industry. They forced the state's utilities to buy more renewable power and offered rebates to homeowners who bolted solar panels to their roofs.
The effort appears to have worked. Most of the country's largest solar companies are based in California, particularly in the Bay Area. The foundation's survey counted 21,653 solar jobs around the bay.
And while most solar manufacturing takes place elsewhere, namely Asia, manufacturing companies account for about 22 percent of California's solar jobs, according to the foundation. "It's an integrated set of policies that have created really vibrant markets for solar, from utility scale all the way down to rooftop solar," said Arno Harris, CEO of Recurrent Energy. His San Francisco company develops solar power plants that sell their electricity to utilities.
"The fact that California is a third of these numbers (nationwide) really reflects the important role California has played and the connection between policy, markets and jobs," said Harris, who also chairs the board of the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group.
The field's rapid expansion appealed to Allum Ross Jr., who took a job last year with SolarCity in San Mateo. The recent finance graduate from California State University East Bay now oversees SolarCity's system for rewarding bonuses to customers who refer other people to the company.
"Solar is kind of a hot-button issue right now, and that geared me toward thinking about it," said Ross, 28, of Oakland. "I like the fast pace of it. I like the growth prospects. A lot of companies don't have growth prospects, and SolarCity does."
David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF